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The Future of Space Sports
Loether writes "Space.com has a fun article about how astronauts aboard the ISS play 'sports' in zero gravity. It talks about learning how to throw in a straight line instead of the arc we all take for granted, relay races, and using large water filled bags as medicine balls. 'We realized that you could toss and catch and then go for a ride on this big thing as it takes you away.' The astronauts also put out a request for new ideas for space sports. Have any suggestions?"
a system for it to make it's own gravity and transporters
The enemy gate is down!
sic transit gloria mundi
....mechanics of such:
How about the horizontal mambo?
Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
Took me a beat to get the Ender reference. Good one!
If your only tool is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail.
...until the medicine ball full of water bursts open.
I for one welcome our new water overlords.
Jogging around the water tanks à la Skylab maybe?
Any other non-sports we should consider?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=is+not+a+sport&btnG=Google+Search
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Fizzbin.
Maybe you'll be one of the few who have ever gotten a Royal Fizzbin. BTW, the odds of actually getting a Royal Fizzbin have never been computed but are known to be astronomical.
While the ISS may not be the best for this, how about zero G paintball? That would kick ass. ISS is relatively confined to have much in the way of sports. Zero G Racketball could get interesting, but again, need more space.
Pull!
Nerf guns would be fun..
Lawn Darts are probably out..
Invalid Checksum. Retrying.
games, I'm going to have to suggest "zerogfindthesausage" as a good one to play.
Monstar L
The astronauts also put out a request for new ideas for space sports. Have any suggestions?
You mean other than the obvious one we all wonder about?
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
in zero g, the white guy could finally compete with the black guy (flaimbait, i'm sure)
If people can get past, can they get future? Best way to confuse a stoner
I read it somewhere one time. Give me some wings and Zero-G, and I can use them to 'swim' if I can push enough air around. Would be even more fun with Small-G.
"What about Zero-G kickboxing? Or Wimbledon?"
I have always been a fan of qpong myself.... It seams like with low gravity this may finally be a possibility!
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
I wanna know if the Kama Sutra will be amended.
What?
A 0-G pissing contest might prove interesting.
Since when does reiterating the department of an article add anything to the conversation? Posted by Soulskill on 2008.04.25 13:55
from the enemy's-gate-is-down dept.
speedfloating...neither foot can touch the ground during the entire race.
Calvin Ball!
My karma is in a nose dive
new ideas for space sports. Have any suggestions?"
Please...
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Don't confuse Activity, competitions and sports. Sorry, I needed to gt that off my chest.
Any ways..
Gymnastics would be very interesting, as would wrestling.
I suspect someone would create 'wings' that strap onto your arms to help you 'swim' around. That could be an interesting race.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
tug of war ?
What ? Me, worry ?
The perfect opportunity to play Blurn Ball!
Well, I think archery and skeet shooting are right out. I'd like to see a zero-G baseball game.
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
I wonder how king of the mountain would work in space...
Well you can't very well juggle on your own in space, and I doubt Nasa would appreciate you bouncing balls off all the equipment, but you could probably learn to juggle 5 balls between two people.
:D
Of course the trick is to work out a path where the balls won't collide, and to learn the direction to throw them in, but it'd make for a great publicity video if they worked it out
I imagine it'd be pretty cool to play Hide and Seek in a 3D environment, although the hiding space options would be rather limited.
How about setting up a CAVE-like environment for some really VR Descent?
...the ceiling is the floor
It ain't what they call you. It's what you answer to. http://mylyceum.us/
...walzees (or however it's spelled). That used to be so much fun back in elementary school. Ah, good old days in Jersey City.
Only, instead of a line of folks, you have a 2D mesh. And instead of running at the opposing team, your teammates hurl you at them.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women.
But you could float the jacks around in a 3D space, then bounce the ball off some wall and try to grab all of the jacks in your hands and still catch the ball off the bounce.
First round you have to grab one jack. Second round, two. And so on.
--
Hide and seek seems like it would be a bit more challenging on the space station. "Anyone seen Dave? Or his EVA suit?"
The last time I wrote code, it was Morse
It's a no-brainer ... I mean ... ZERO GRAVITY !!!
I want to see a large cylinder ( 100+ m diameter ) with enough spin to have about 1/4 G, and lots of water. There could be waves going both directions, and a few underwater obstacles to provide breaks.
Flatulence races? Do you have enough fuel to make it across the finish line?
... a good game of 'hide the capsule'?
Read my Very Short "Stories"
As opposed to the original kind of mambo, where one person lays down and the other one stands on him?
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
In collage we played allot of "quarters". It would also provide research for drunk astronauts.
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~Joaquin Setanti
You can refer to the Kama Sutra for various orthogonal copulation techniques.
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
Snipes is a hero.
America of the enlightenment has died. RIP.
Er, like outside in meatspace, maybe?? I'd like to play a 1D game of Hide and Seek.... Or a proper 4D hide and seek... I know he's around here somewhere... but WHEN??
I suppose you mean it is 3D since you can float off the ground, but you can climb up stuff in regular gravity hide and seek too.
Clovis
^ Clovis, look! It's that guy you are!
Wouldn't there need to be space sports *now* before we start talking about the future of space sports? No? Never mind.
QD's requirements for entertaining space sports:
[1] Rotating playfield (for Coriolis effects)
[2] Weapons
[3] Sexy female players in tight cat suits
[4] Sexy female referees in BDSM gear (with whips and paddles for meting out penalties)
[5] Full contact rules
[6] The ball? A human head!
Put a magnet in the ball and use a metal floor within a composite cylinder. Composite racquets of course.
Invenio via vel creo
Having no gravity would sure make that Asian gameshow where you try to jump through the styrofoam wall with a shape cut out of it while it is moving at you quite a bit easier. Could imagine an updated version where the shape changes from the beginning of the wall to the end of it
Anyone ever see the Battle Athletes anime? They had a zero-g version of lacrosse that they played in a large enclosed room so they could push off the walls, floor and ceiling. That would be fun.
-SaNo
Yeah, yeah, I am being a buzz-kill here. But seriously, it has to cost a lot of money to have astronauts up there. Shouldn't maximizing their productivity be the priority here? I realize that everyone gets burned out, and probably all the more so in orbit, but there has to be a more efficient way to manage human-hours in space.
May the schwartz be with you.
Sheesh.
Quidditch!!!
My blog
I am thinking a small metal sphere and magnets at various angles and distances to alter the path of the sphere in such a way that you could set up a series of hoops that you had to go through. And when that gets boring there is always Super Happy Fun Ball: http://terry.kovax.org/2005/03/super_happy_fun_ball.html
Sex is a sport right?
just make sure you dont mistranslates its 414 for those geeky enough to know the numbers
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
They could play some sort of World of Warcraft...in space :P and call it World of Starcraft! But seriously, space ping pong would kick ass cuz it'd be like pong instead.
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...horse racing?
"I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine." -Jack Thompson
Not very familiar with sex here, I can tell...
Extreme sports would include skinny dipping and blowing up a balloon.
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
..."Joe Klumpp's 'Zero-Gee Football - It's a Funny Old Game" being available.
That will no doubt be regarded as one of the worst books in history.
I heard that "53 more things to do in zero gravity" was very popular. There's sure to be something in there.
Projectile Red Rover.
Throw astronauts at opposing teams and try to break the chain. Much fun if you can get them going fast enough.
Foot touched the wall that's a drink
Sunrise that's a drink
Sunset that's a drink
passing over Europ, you guessed it, take a drink
Houston calls last person on the communication takes two drinks. etc.
With Jim Bexley Speed!
Since you can take and leave things at will in the air, how about some good old 3D checkers? You could even do 3D sculpting with objects just hanging in space to make cool designs. As far as sports go, you could do some space polo. Much like water polo, except you best be able to get where you need to go. I would suggest a cube/cylindrical room, with hoops on both ends.
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I'm thinking the accellorometers in the Wiimote require gravity.
So no Wii Sports in Space? Cancel my flight!
Beer pong!
Isn't the main reason we're into space to get away from the jocks?
I wanna know how Sex is in Space! do they have to tie a bungie around themselves or what??? Who were the first to have sex in space?
Disclaimer: I am not god.
We may not be created equal
But we can be treated equal.
Attach a pole from one wall to an opposite wall, then attach your tether in the middle. Orient yourself however you want.
Ask someone "you wanna play me?" and then it's game on.
Without gravity - 2D games can become 3D. Hence, one could consider Pool, Billiards or Snooker in 3D. You'd probably want to use really light balls though because the air resistance won't slow them down as fast as the cloth on the table would have done...and because you don't want it to get dangerous! So pingpong-ball pool with paper cups taped to the corners of an ISS module to act as pockets.
...chess?
LASER CATS!
;)
Tiddly Winks
Darts
But if you had something like an enormous padded sportshall in zero G, one party could throw something, while the other had to catch it. That is, thrust yourself forward with an accurate enough vector to intercept it. And if you fail, you just keep bouncing. Of course, if you don't fail, you keep bouncing as well, but there'd be things to hold on to on the sides of it. Or something.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
Hey, if someone can figure out how to slow down a curling stone, or similar object without getting knocked about or crunched, it's on!
Shuffleboard, darts, bumper pool...
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
If golf were played in zero gravity would it still be considered not a sport? What about other non-sport sports like fishing and poker.
I mean, you're in zero-G granted, but can't you just try 'jumping' off the floor, then the ceiling, then repeating it while trying not to get hit by the rope?
Eh, I tried.
"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
UFC.... in Space!!!!!!!
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Space Bukkake
Space polo! (Water not pony)
It's amazing how, even as a wee child, we learn to account for gravity in everything we do. (I know that it's an obvious statement, but ponder it). We learn to throw in arcs, we learn how things bounce, based on their elasticity or density, we learn how to throw higher/lighter, lower/harder to do different arcs, we learn how to throw things that are light vs heavy ...
then, to have to relearn that in space. It would be an interesting study in learning and adapting to see how people learn this, then, when they return back to Gravity, how they re-adjust.
We emerge from our mother's womb an unformatted diskette; our culture formats us. - Douglas Coupland
But I hoped to see something like a solar sailing race. There is a nice story by A.C.Clarke called "The Wind From the Sun". It was published in 1964! So when can I get my solar sailing yacht?
There is another nice story probably also by him where he describes runners taking part in some kind of space olympics. It was essentially a race to get the lightest space suit, which was finally genetically optimized away. I just can't remember what the name was.
Je me souviens.
It's probably a big supply bag.
They could play "spit in my mouth" from pretty far away. Or throw food in each other's mouth instead. Or "who pees the farthest". Or Tug O' War. Or paper plane throwing-based games (still works without gravity, but instead of falling down it just stops, which could make up for interesting plane interception games). Or throw arrows on a floating, and eventually spinning, target. Or a "blow race" : make some origami thing (or better yet blow a soap bubble), let it float still on the start "line" and blow on it to make it go forward. Or roll a rope around an astronaut, push him away and pull on the rope to make him spin. Or play Space Invaders : have an astronaut throwing a bunch of tiny objects that would serve as enemies slowly towards you and try to shoot them all away with a few other tiny objects that would serve as bullets. Make these enemies be tuning forks set to play different notes and try to make a cool tune while by hitting them. Or let pool table balls (or something equivalent, actually tennis table balls would be better) float and try to play 3D billard. Or try synchronous dance or whatever sky divers do. Make a very slow tiny RC plane (like so slow it couldn't fly on Earth, slower than walking speed), let a bunch of rings float in the air and try to make the plane go through them. Eventually adapt tiny sort of cannons on them and enjoy the possibilities. Invent a new form of break-dance. Stack up balls in mid-air and try to reproduce something similar to Newton's cradle. Try to make magnets orbit each other slowly (although I'm not sure that magnetic force is proportional to the square of the distance..). Modify a gun into shooting bullets 100 times slower and pretend it's Matrix' bullet time. Set up a bunch of parallel bars and do slomo gymnastics on them. Attach two astronauts using an elastic rope tied at their waist and let them try to run simultaneously on each other's feet. Put two transpolines on opposite walls and bounce from one to the other back and forth and try to do tricks, be they in slomo or not.
That's all I've got so far.
You just got troll'd!
(no not that, i meant spitting :) )
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I'm surprised no one's brought up Ultimate (Frisbee)
A spinning disc has lift so th throw it to some one, you'd throw it down and it would rise to them!
What about some sort of dancing? Ballroom, maybe?
Saying "I'll probably get modded down for this" in a post is the best way to get it modded up.
Lance Armstrong, Sit Down: Dr. Sally Ride, the first female US astronaut in space, rode a bicycle across the Atlantic ocean. She did so in 15 minutes. This was done in 1983, aboard STS-7 on a stationary bike, as part of an experiment on exercise in zero g intended to reduce the problem of bone calcium loss during long missions. It stretches at least a couple definitions to the breaking point, but it's great to be able to say "rode a bicycle across the Atlantic ocean in 15 minutes". A free flight variant of this could be a bicycle race using vehicles with a human powered propeller, flying a course aboard a space station.
The High (Frontier) Jump: I came up with this when OMNI printed an article about the first Olympics in space, and requested ideas from readers. Take two medium sized asteroids and set them orbiting about each other. The jumper starts on one, and jumps into a prescribed 3 body orbit about the pair. Jumps include: Jump from A, orbiting B, and landing back on A as close as possible to the starting point; jump from A, slingshot around B, orbit around A counter to the original direction, and land on B; jump from A, ricochet off B without stopping and land back on A as close as possible to the original starting point. 'Free style' jumps of the jumpers' own device as also included. Although probably requiring attitude thruster assistance, gymnastic moves such as spinning and somersaults during the jumps add to the scores. Also, a jump using a heads up display projected on the inside of a helmet with the faceplate blacked over test the jumper's ability to work from data instead of seat-of-the-pants sight. A variant of this and the bicycle race above could be jumping from an asteroid for initial delta V, and negotiating a marked course using attitude control thrusters. Points are added according to landing speed and how little additional delta V is acquired during the 3 dimensional slalom involved (ie. steering so as not to add speed to the starting speed).
Earth Surfing: A danger to the Apollo flights was the possibility that due to the high Earth gravity acquired return speed, an too low a reentry angle would make them skip off the atmosphere and out into solar orbit. Make use of that. Starting from lunar orbit, perform a Earth-targeted burn with minimal in flight correction. The intention is to bounce off the atmosphere so as to lose the most velocity while still escaping Earth's gravity well (ie. coming as close as possible to reentry speed but still surfing the atmosphere back out into solar orbit). An element of danger enters when the burn might produce too steep a reentry angle causing the returnees to burn up on reentry rather than bounce. Even a well executed bounce will include significant heating, and shortening the heating time and reducing the amount would mean a more oblique surfing angle and so fewer points.
Synchronized Swimming: Now possible in 3 dimensions, instead of the usual 2 on the water's surface. The team performs on and within a huge globule of water floating freely in zero g. Besides the points acquired from performance itself, points are lost according to how much water is splashed away from the main globule during the exercise.
V-HALO Jump: In the Very High Altitude, Low Open Jump the astronaut athlete is given their exact orbital parameters, the location of a landing site, and placed in a reentry shielded single person module with a retrorocket built in. They get into the 'landing coffin', and at a time and with a delta V of their own calculation, perform their burn, reenter the atmosphere, and when their speed is low enough jump out and perform a free fall parachute jump. Points are gained for how low they open the chute and how close they land to the specified point. To make things interesting, rather than giving them a computer for calculating their burn time and duration, give them the technology used by the Soviet cosmonauts during the Apollo-Soyuz mission rendezvous: slide rule and stop watch.
The Charles Duke Lunar High Jump: When Charlie Duk
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Spacediving: You drop from orbit with nothing more than a spacesuit (specially made for re-entry, of course) and a parachute. I've always thought that would be an interesting experience.
It'd require materials and processes we don't yet have, but I imagine there would be a few nutballs that would be into it when the technology is available.
Posting AC because I'm too lazy to log in.
With the current and projected energy prices it would be more appropriate to think of sports played in your close neighborhood. Some predicts, that even transcontinental and intercontinental flying will be again the privilege of a small elite.
Anyone else initially read this subject as having the men be juggled? Bonus points if one of them vomits?
The opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of my brain.
They've never shown heroines throwing men around, but it would be one of the great moments in space.
You can't touch the "Puck", and you're given a little hooked 2ft stick and have to slap it through a hoop.
Also see basket racquetball.
Laser tag comes to mind. Get a few guns up there and re-enact some scenes from The Matrix. I'd like to bring up some RC cars boats and planes, just to see what works and what doesn't.
...is an excellent sport no matter the local spacetime curvature.
-=rsw
I have always been a fan of ping pong, but gravity just gets in the way. So why not have a square tunnel where you can hit off any of the sides. There would be no need for a net, since this is kind of like racketball, you just hit it off of any of the sides but the path is straight except where spin still comes into play. This is one of those things you just can't try in the presence of gravity.
I think paintball would be great. Once again, there is the issue of the sensitive equipment.
There is a TV show my wife watches that could be really fascinating watching them attempt to duplicate in Zero-G, Dancing with the Stars.
Biliards in Zero-G
When you have 3 dimensions to richochet a spherical object around in - it creates many more dimensions of complexity in which there are multiple solutions to get the 'ball in the hole'.
If you could have 'pockets' of dense and thin atmosphere for the 'ball' to pass through it would make for some interesting velocity considerations.
The ground. Imagine two people dancing. Now, two people dancing horizontally. Maybe on a cushiony surface to absorb some shock. Now without clothes.
Or worse, www.3musketeers.com
Hacky-space, start with one player upside down compared to the other, to be most similar to college days... One footbag is also little equipment and light. After improving, add other players at odd angles--hands can only be used for stability!
I have no clue how one would rack in such an arrangement, however. Any ideas?
I can see the fnords!
Not very familiar with jerking off while a girl shits on your chest, I can tell...
There are horizons in Low Earth Orbit after all.
Play Command HQ online
Just how far away from other massive bodies, and how slowly would you have to throw the balls to get them to go into orbit around you?
I can just imagine the fun a person could have with a SuperBall in a zero/low gravity environment. When I was younger my brothers and I would throw them around in the confined space of our hallway, usually resulting in an involuntary game of dodge ball... Hmm, that may not be such a good space game after all. I remember that it got more painful as time went on while we tried to extract revenge on one another for prior erroneous (or intended) throws. And the dodging was rather ineffective too, as the speed increased the probability of dodging an opponents (or your own) ball declined rapidly. The games usually only lasted a few minutes (the amount of time for a game ending injury or game ending mother).
A deck of cards could be used for many different games, but I have a feeling they would be hard to control in micro gravity. The astronauts would probably be playing '52 card pickup' on a regular basis... Perhaps small magnetic strips in the cards could be enough to hold them in a stack or onto a slightly magnetized surface. However, I suspect a rogue magnet roaming the space station could prove more of a problem than several normal cards running loose. On second thought, forget the magnets, just use a hair tie or scrunchy to tie up cards not in play.
Would this be like joining the 242 mile high club?
But I think that we can rule out motorsports... Electrical RC helicopters may work - but in a modified design...
And I think that Boxing is out too... Too messy...
But it sure would be interesting to take a kitten into space! Only problem would be the toilet... Cats are amazing in their behavior and abilities to get around.
Anyway - many ball games would work - even if the rules have to be twisted somewhat.
Velodrome bicycling will have a new meaning...
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Why be so strict with the pattern? I'm terrible at math, but I know that there are many many patters that 6 people can form. Just throw the ball around between the 6 of them to establish a pattern for the session. Then all any individual has to do is remember who threw the ball to them and who to throw it to next. It's simple, but if you add more balls, you have to throw and prepare to catch quicker and quicker, with the goal being to keep the flow going for as long as possible. If it's too easy, just add more balls.
My friends used to play this game in our dorm room. We called it 'catapult' for some reason. It accommodated any number of people and was very simple to understand, so newcomers were easily integrated into the group. There were often mid-air collisions as the streams crossed, and everyone would cry out like it was Jenga or something. It would be perfect for space, as I bet you could form some pretty cool patterns by tossing the balls down corridors and then circling through more open spaces!!
Also, we often used balled up socks as balls, so astronauts wouldn't need to bring additional balls.
Speaking of corridors, we also used to play a game in the hallways. We used a klutz product called a Foxtail, which is just a rubber ball with a tail attached. 1 person stood at each end of our hallway, which was maybe 40' long. The goal was to throw the Foxtail and try to get it to hit the wall behind the other player. The trick was that if it hit the wall or ceiling, it lost lots of momentum or ricocheted so it was much easier to block. BTW we threw the ball by holding the end of the tail and swinging it vertically, keeping it low, like waist level, so that when released it arced up from our feet and passed the other player as high as possible. You only got one throw per turn, but the ball often clipped the ground because you were trying to keep it so low to the ground to get the best trajectory. We called this one 'foxtrot.'
good times, good times.
"Dodge the Gamma Ray" is always a great way to pass the time while in orbit.
with eight pockets, per corner of cube, plus one in the middle of each wall, 3D pool or billiards or snooker would be pretty tricky game. I think you'd have to relax some of the rules about fouling, and you'd need to wear protection against being hit by a particularly fast ball!
1. Have a bunch of bolt on/insert starting blocks (used in track in field) set into the wall/floor/ceiling. Have the two teams form a scrum and see who can be pushed to the other side of the pitch/playfield. This would provide some good resistance for the participants which would help with maintaining bone mass/strength. 2. Harness 2 individuals, have a rope (or bungee if you want to have Jackass the Movie type fun) tied to the back of the harnesses. The playing field is a bunch of bolted in climbing wall holds to the wall. Have the two participants start in the center and climb/crawl to opposite sides of the room and try and drag your opponent with you. With bungie I imagine it would look like 3:16 time frame in this Youtube video if some one were to let go. (may not want to click on this at work) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xaf1dHFRZUU
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The last time I wrote code, it was Morse